Reacting to the TCP claim that it had procured 124,000 bales, including 61,400 from Sindh and 63,000 from Punjab, PCGA chairman Shaikh Muhammad Saeed termed the figure ‘highly misleading’ as only 3,000 bales had so far been procured by the TCP in Punjab.

He said as a matter of fact the TCP had been keeping a slow procurement pace by rejecting the stocks being offered to it for sale under one pretext or another despite the fact that the cotton being procured currently was of prime quality.

The PCGA chief said the corporation was reluctant to procure even the cotton of prime quality while the ginners were working hard to produce a contamination-free cotton. He said ginners’ efforts in this regard had been appreciated by the textile millers, and added the TCP policy was beyond comprehension.

He alleged that the TCP policy was similar to that of textile millers, which was, to wait till the filling up of stocks at ginneries in order to depress the prices artificially.

Mr Saeed feared that ginners would land in hot waters owing to the TCP’s slow buying policy as they were purchasing phutti (seed cotton) at higher rates hoping that the TCP would lift their produce.